The Gude and Godlie Ballatis
Title Details

425 Pages

21.6 x 13.8 cm

1 b/w illus.

Series: Scottish Text Society Fifth Series

Series Vol. Number: 14

Imprint: Scottish Text Society

The Gude and Godlie Ballatis

Edited by Alasdair A. MacDonald

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Author
  • Reviews
New edition of a collection of songs and ballads from sixteenth-century Scotland, shedding important new light on the English and Scottish Reformation.

The Gude and Godlie Ballatis is a collection of religious lyrics from the early years of the Scottish Reformation. It was a highly popular, if controversial, volume, was often reprinted, and is considered one of the most important literary works of vernacular Scots from the period. It contains translations of a number of Psalms, but most of the contents consist of shorter songs and ballads, many of which have been adapted from a secular to a spiritual use.
The previous edition of the collection dates from 1897. The new edition not only revises the information given there, but presents the text of the earliest print (1565), which was unknown to the previous editor. The textual development of the collection through the various printings is studied, and is related to the changing historical, political, literary, cultural and theological contexts of Reformation Scotland. The editor addresses questions of authorship, transmission, source material, and the use and significance of these lyrics. Drawing on recent work in book history and English psalmody, as well as a deep knowledge of Older Scots lyric, he demonstrates the close connections between the collection and Continental hymnody, as well as interactions with English and Scots lyric, both sacred and profane.

Alasdair A. MacDonald is Professor Emeritus of English Language and Literatureof the Middle Ages, University of Groningen.
Introduction
General
Witnesses (printed)
Witnesses (manuscript)
Supposed witnesses
Changes in contents
Printing history
Sources of texts
The Wedderburns
Textual transfers
The archaeology of the collection
The GGB and literature
Cultural significance
The value of 1565 GGB
Previous editions
Text criticism
Early fortunes of the GGB: some hypotheses
The language of the GGB
Conclusion
Treatment of Text
Texts
Commentary
Appendix: The Lamentatioun of a Sinner
Indices
Glossary
Bibliography

Alasdair A. MacDonald is emeritus Professor of English, University of Groningen, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Glasgow. He has published widely on medieval and early modern Scottish and English literature and culture.

"The GGB was an important and enjoyable publication. So is this compendious new edition of that `compendious buke'." JOURNAL OF THE EDINBURGH BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
"Will be much welcomed by scholars of the Scottish Reformation in particular." INNES REVIEW

Hardcover

9781897976418

September 2015

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Title Details

425 Pages

2.16 x 1.38 cm

1 b/w illus.

Series: Scottish Text Society Fifth Series

Series Vol. Number: 14

Imprint: Scottish Text Society